On the way down the coast from Naples to Pompeii, after you pass Herculaneum, you come to a town called Torre Annunziata, where you can easily walk from the Circumvesiana train stop down to the ruins at Oplontis, thought to have been the Villa of Poppaea, Nero's wife. It is a fabulous house, somewhere around 15,000 sq ft, with an olympic size pool in the side yard. It also has very fine ornamental painting throughout, and it is in very good condition, with roofs and protection for the walls, and even some lighting for dark days (which it was when we were there.) It also has nowhere near the crowds you will find at Pompeii and Herculaneum, so I highly recommend making a stop.
There are so many great aspects to this image from the oecus, or great room if you will, of the house. The peacock sitting on a ledge decorated with a nice cyma molding, the tragic theater mask, and the false vista of a two tiered colonnade stretching back into atmospheric haze. Not to mention the trompe l'oeil fluting of the columns on each side, which are done entirely with paint.
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